Tag Archives: Vancouver

Reading through the Vancouver Chowhound message boards (search “itinerary”) led to a recommendation for Kingyo Izakaya. I had their bento box, a great value lunch at $16 with so many different components all beautifully presented. The tamago had shrimp and a delicious sauce. The tuna was excellent. Kingyo only makes ten bento boxes per day, but they can be reserved ahead of time by calling. The salted caramel tiramisu was really good. Kingyo is located on Denman St in the West End, near the entrance to Stanley Park. Tourist tip: Kingyo was a great place to go for lunch before a ~9 km bike ride along the sea wall of beautiful Stanley Park, where one can get amazing views of downtown Vancouver, the harbor, mountains, and Lion’s Gate Bridge.

I had fond memories of poutine ever since a trip to Canada as a kid. A search for “Vancouver poutine” led to many of the good reviews of Fritz European Fry House on Yelp. Poutine originated in Quebec and is traditionally French fries smothered in meat gravy and topped with squeaky cheese curds – a combination that will leave your stomach sated and your arteries clogged. Key components are fries prepared to order and a delicious gravy, both of which Fritz did really well. I liked the addition of Montreal smoked meat, which is similar to pastrami. Fritz is a bit more conveniently located on Davie St, south of the Granville entertainment district, than the Eater recommended La Belle Patate.

Yelp also led to breakfast at the Yolk’s food cart, which was solid. I had a duck confit sandwich with poached egg, spinach, and marmalade on a toasted English muffin. The truffle-lemon hash brown skewers were very good. I must say that trying to eat a hot breakfast from a food truck next to the Stadium-Chinatown Skytrain station on a cold, overcast morning in March in Vancouver is not ideal. Yolk’s has a sit-down establishment as well, but it is a bit further out from downtown Vancouver.

Yelp also led to Japadog, the curiously popular food cart with a stand-alone restaurant on Robson Street. I really like fusion (Momofuku, Mission Chinese), but here it seemed a little forced. Japadog makes hot dogs with Japanese toppings, which sounded interesting and was something I had never had before. One of their popular items is the Terimayo, a hot dog with teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, and strips of nori. After one bite I realized I had made a mistake. Nori and hot dogs do not go together.

Overall, I really liked Vancouver and know that I had just a taste of what the city has to offer food-wise. Having done the research for Vancouver, my experience is that it takes some work to sift through all the noise and deciding which sources to trust. At the end of the day, a consensus usually emerges that leads to great food travel experiences and memories. So take my outsider’s experiences and recommendations with a grain of salt and happy eating!

I recently had the opportunity to visit Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada (which might be the most beautiful city in North America.) Whenever I visit a new city, I like to seek out food destinations that serve unique and delicious dishes. Bonus if the place is affordable or offers something that one cannot get in the Bay Area. For example, I won’t particularly seek out Chinese food, even though Vancouver is well known for good Chinese food. But where to find the great places each city offers? There are so many different resources online to research new destinations. I like perusing the best of lists from Yelp, Eater, and TripAdvisor, reading the message boards on Chowhound, the “36 Hours in…” articles in the New York Times, and finding local food blogs. From there it’s on to individual restaurant websites and even Google Images. While some sources and reviews are spot on, others can lead one astray.

I found Bestie on the Vancouver Eater hot restaurant list and was very glad that I did. Bestie specializes in currywurst, a German invention where fries are topped with sausage and curry ketchup/tomato sauce. I first tried currywurst in Cologne, Germany but had never seen it in N. America, so I was excited to visit Bestie. They make a delicious version with everything produced in-house, including the sausages. In addition to the traditional Thuringer pork wurst, they have some unique offerings such as butter chicken and bison. The dessert was excellent, a not-too-sweet gooey chocolate cake with sour cherries and yogurt. The hipster staff was really friendly, but my impression on this trip was that most Canadians are really friendly!

I found Cartems Donuterie also on Eater. Originally a pop-up, in 2013 Cartems made the successful transition to a brick-and-mortar storefront in downtown Vancouver with a beautiful, inviting space. They have some really unique flavors. I really liked the Honey Parmesan – a vanilla cake donut topped with honey, grated parmesan cheese, and ground black pepper. I grew up eating Apple Crumb and Apple Spice donuts from Dunkin, so I had to try Cartems Apple Pie Stuffie, a delicious yeasted donut with a chunky apple pie filling. Cartems serves really good freshly ground, drip brew coffee. At $3 per donut, Cartem’s is triple the price of Tim Horton’s (the ubiquitous Canadian donut chain) but so much better.

Miku is a slick Japanese restaurant on the waterfront near Canada Place. Miku, and it’s sister restaurant Minaya in Yaletown, offers a $28 Zen bento box lunch, which includes five pieces of sushi and four small dishes. Miku specializes in “aburi” style of sushi that is lightly seared. Their sushi rice was very delicate and each piece was well executed, especially their signature salmon aburi oshi sushi, made with pressed British Colombia wild sockeye salmon, jalapeño, and “Miku” sauce. The small dishes were also well done; most memorable was the fried prawn, almost like a fritter with a delicious batter. Miku is a good choice in a refined setting along the waterfront. Tourist tip: after lunch take the Seabus from Waterfront Station to North Vancouver to get great views of downtown. Then take the bus to Lynn Canyon or Capilano suspension bridge and hike in the lush Pacific Northwest rainforest.

What are the some of the ways that you find out about the local food scene where you are visiting?